Contingency
by morganxleanne
Summary: After escaping from WICKED and spending two months in hiding, Elle knows she needs to find the Right Arm. When she meets a group of teenagers trying to do the same, they agree to help each other out. When things that Elle is determined to keep secret threaten to be exposed, Elle and the group realize that their pasts and futures are more entwined then they could have ever imagined.


**Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable. TMR Trilogy Characters are the property of James Dashner; I'm just borrowing them. Elle and the plot of this are of my own creation.**

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Elle decides that it's time to find somewhere to hunker down for the night when the sun is beginning to set and the wind picks up, the first indication that there's going to be a sandstorm soon. Packing her binoculars in her backpack, she throws it over her shoulders and slides down the sand dune that she has been laying on for the past few hours. She stands when she reaches the bottom and readjusts the scarf that's covering her mouth and nose before trudging in the direction she knows she needs to go.

Elle doesn't really know where she's going; all she knows is that two days ago Marcus dropped her off and pointed her in the right direction to find the weigh station where people were supposedly keeping Immunes. She isn't sure why Marcus wanted her to stake out the weigh station, but Marcus promised that once she got back, he would help her get as far away from WICKED as possible.

Elle's been fighting for two months to put as much distance between her and WICKED as she could. Marcus is definitely to thank for the fact that she hasn't been detected in the numerous searches and sweeps of the city since her escape. Without him, Elle knows she would have been captured by now—or worse—so she doesn't have a problem doing things he asks, at least in this sense.

She's not sure what he's hoping to find out from her recon, but she definitely didn't seen any evidence of the occupants of the station harboring any Immunes. Whatever he's wanting, Elle hopes that her information is enough to satisfy him.

Elle decides not to worry about it anymore; she has a long journey ahead of her and she's never been in this part of the Scorch before. She supposes she should be scared and she is a little, but she's been lucky enough so far that she hasn't seen any Cranks. Not even Cranks scare her more than the thought of being captured by WICKED, but with night falling fast, she knows the chances of running into Cranks increase and that's another reason to find shelter.

She's been walking for probably half an hour when Elle stumbles upon an abandoned building. She peeks in through a broken window, but it's pretty dark inside so she can't really see much. Elle debates not going in and taking her chances out in the Scorch, but the wind picks up even more and sand begins to swirl around her and she knows that she doesn't have the option to keep going, especially with how dark it is already.

Elle takes a deep, calming breath before she goes through the window and scales down the slope of sand. She pulls the scarf off of her face and looks around. It seems even darker inside so Elle pauses to dig her flashlight out of her backpack. She takes a second to take a drink of water before turning her flashlight on and pointing it in front of her.

"Alright, let's do this," she mumbles to herself before she takes a step farther into the building.

It's a mall.

The abandoned building is actually an abandoned mall and soon Elle finds herself a floor below the one she started on. The makeshift beds and living spaces clue her in to the fact that people used to live here and for a few moments, Elle stands there, looking on in sadness. She knows that some of these people were probably Immunes who were taken and that others were non-Immunes who got infected with the Flare and are now Cranks.

It's sad and Elle doesn't like knowing the reality of the world she's living in.

She spends a good while loading her backpack with food and refilling her water bottles before going around and picking up various supplies she finds and thinks that will be useful later. The most intriguing item she finds is the throwing knife set, bundled up in a small, fabric case. There are six glistening knives secured in the case and besides the fact that they're about three inches smaller, they are identical to the knife she has resting in a holster tied around her thigh. It takes Elle less than a second to decided to take it and she stuffs it into her bag.

She's zipping up her backpack when she hears the unmistakable sounds of people—or things—coming toward her. It freezes Elle in her position, panic rushing her body for just a second before she remembers that she needs to act. Reaching for the knife by her thigh, Elle throws her backpack over her shoulder and stands, turning quickly.

Elle doesn't have time to grasp her knife before she's tackled to the ground. It's instinct to bring her arms up to cover her face, blocking her view of whoever—or whatever—took her down, but the hissing tells her it's a Crank. Not giving herself time to panic anymore, Elle slams her elbow into the side of the Crank's face. It stuns it just long enough for Elle to gain the upper hand and push the Crank off of her body.

It comes toward her again, but Elle's ready, delivering a swift kick and knocking it back before pulling the knife from its holster. She rushes toward the Crank, sinking the knife into its skull with no hesitancy. The moving and hissing stops immediately and Elle uses both hands to pull the knife out before kicking the Crank away and putting the knife back in the holster.

She's breathing heavily and feeling herself start to shake and Elle knows that she needs to get out of here now. Where there's one Crank, there's many. She found that out the hard way when she first escaped WICKED and she has no intention of repeating that mistake.

Elle begins to weave in and out of the abandoned living quarters and makes one final turn, leaving her with a straight shot to the escalators when she makes an abrupt stop.

Standing ten feet in front of her are two boys who are around her age. They second they see Elle, they stop, their flashlights illuminating her. Elle feels the blood drain from her face, the thought that these are WICKED soldiers going through her mind before she pushes it out. They definitely don't look anything like WICKED soldiers and they definitely don't have guns, but she can't be sure as their flashlights raise and she becomes blinded by the light.

"Who are you?" One of the boys asks as he lowers his flashlight a little. Now that she's not being blinded, Elle can see their faces better and can see the pure panic on their faces and she knows she's right in thinking they aren't with WICKED. "Who are you?!"

"Elle!" she exclaims, holding her hands out in front of her. The panicked looks on the boys' faces are making her let her guard down and while she knows this could be bad, Elle can't stop what she's doing. "I'm Elle and we need to leave right now."

The other boy is clearly more wary of Elle, scrutinizing her intensely. She sees that he's changed his stance into one of that of a warrior ready to attack if necessary and Elle shakes her head. She needs them to understand. They all need to get out right now. The boys can interrogate her later; she just wants to make sure they get out. "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise, but we have to go now."

"We don't know that," the first boy tells her. "You could be with WICKED and just trying to trick us."

"If I was with WICKED, you'd already be dead by now and you know it," Elle replies and she can tell from the way the boy is looking at her that he knows it's true. "I know you believe me so listen to me when I'm telling you that we have to go right now!"

The boys' expressions change, the panic leaving and confusion showing. The boy who's done most of the talking takes another step toward Elle while the other one turns his attention toward something else "Why? Why do we need to leave?"

"Because there are-"

"Guys!" The other boy calls and both Elle and the first boy turn to look at him. He's twisting a knob on an old standing floor lamp and when he realizes he has their attention, he looks up at them. "They had power. We should check it out."

"No, we need to go," Elle repeats firmly. She doesn't understand why they can't get that through their freaking heads. Do they not understand?

"We will in a bit," the first boy promises, sharing a look with the other boy. "I'm Thomas and this is Minho."

"Awesome, nice to meet you, now let's go," Elle replies, gesturing in the direction of the escalators, but neither boy pays her any attention. Minho is beginning to follow the power cords that run across the floor and Thomas is close behind him. Elle has half a mind to leave them behind and get the hell out of Dodge, but for whatever reason, she follows them.

The cords lead across the deserted room and the three walk across the empty space in silence, Elle scanning the room with every step. The first sign of Cranks and she's hightailing it out of there—with or without them. Elle doesn't see anything, though, and it doesn't take them long before their coming up to a set of swinging doors, the cords disappearing beneath them.

Elle hesitates when she watches Thomas push past the doors, but as Minho follows, Elle sighs and trails after them. Thomas is at one end of the room, looking into a fenced off area while Minho walks over to a generator and kneels down in front of it.

"This looks promising," she hears Minho mumble as he begins to flip switches on the generator. It starts to rattle to just as Thomas says, "Hey, Minho, wait!"

Just as the electricity flickers on, Minho standing with a grin, Elle feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and she turns to look at Thomas.

Elle sees the movement from the shadows behind the fence but it's Minho who shouts, "Thomas!" as the Crank runs full speed at the fence. While Minho and Thomas stare at the Crank behind the fence, Elle turns and hears the Crank before she sees him come out from behind boxes and containers.

"Shit!" She cries as she backs up toward the boys. The Crank comes rushing toward them and Elle knows she needs to be moving, needs to be doing something. She reaches for her knife just as Minho looks around and grabs a pipe lying on the ground next to his feet.

"Stay behind me!" He yells, taking a step in front of Elle and Thomas before swinging the pipe and hitting the Crank as hard as he can, watching as the Crank goes down.

"We have to go! Now!" Elle yells. There's no use wishing that the two idiot boys had listened to her before. They just have to get out of here and they have to do it now. There's no more time for dawdling.

Elle hears distant hissing and when Thomas yells, "Run, run, run! Go!" she knows he heard it too. Elle immediately starts for the door, the boys right on her heels, just as more Cranks push past boxes at the end of the room. Elle doesn't let herself panic as she pushes through the swinging doors and turns to watch as Thomas and Minho clear the doorway before closing the doors.

Elle watches as Minho and Thomas struggle to hold the cranks back as they push against the other side of the door. She looks around and when she sees the tall metal cabinet next to the doors she goes to it, beginning to push.

"Hold the doors!" Minho tells Thomas, spotting Elle and going over to help. It doesn't take much pushing at all for the cabinet to start tipping.

Thomas moves back just as the cabinet comes crashing to the floor, all three of them staring at it before turning around and staring at the dark, empty room. There's one second of quiet before they hear the telltale screech of Cranks and Minho and Thomas furiously pan their flashlights over the space.

"Go, go, go! Keep running!" Thomas cries as more Cranks come toward them from the far left. Elle doesn't need any more encouragement and begins running in the direction of the escalators, jumping over obstacles that are in her way. Thomas passes Minho and Elle, turning back once to see where they are, but also to see where the Cranks are.

"Hurry!" Thomas shouts as he turns back around.. "We have to get to the others!"

"Others?!" Elle questions, but it goes unanswered as they turn to head up the escalators that lead up to the next floor. As soon as she turns, she sees the hoard of Cranks rushing after them and she pauses, her breath catching in her throat. She's dealt with more than her fair share of Cranks since escaping WICKED, but she's never seen this many.

"Elle, go!" Minho screams, pushing against her back to get her moving again. Elle remembers that this isn't the time to stop and think about how many Cranks are after them and quickly catches up to Thomas as they continue up.

"Hey!" Thomas starts shouting as he reaches the landing. He rounds the corner quickly, still shouting. "Run! Go!"

Elle follows him around the corner, Minho passing her as he rounds the corner and letting his own shouts join Thomas's. Elle sees six people standing about two hundred feet in front of them and she doesn't understand when they don't immediately start running. If she was in their position, she'd already be gone.

"Go!" Thomas shouts as they get closer to the group, catching a backpack thrown to him as the group runs. "Go!"

Elle blocks out the sound of the screeching Cranks behind her and runs as fast as she can. She doesn't dare turn around to look. Knowing how close they are to her is only going to scare her and she needs to try and hold onto any semblance of rationality she can. She didn't get out of WICKED just to be killed by some Cranks in a stupid mall.

"What are those things?!" Someone shouts as they rush up another escalator and suddenly, Elle realizes why they weren't running before—they didn't realize the danger they were in.

"Cranks!" Elle replies. "Keep running!"

She's not the last one up the escalator but once she hits the landing she doesn't get very far. Everyone's frozen to the spot, watching as a Crank comes toward them. It only takes a few seconds before one of the younger looking boys takes a step forward, a bat in his hands.

"Aris, no!" A few of the others shout as he swings the bat and knocks the Crank off its feet.

"Go, go, go!" Thomas encourages everyone, not giving them time to stare at the fallen Crank as more Cranks appear. It's a mad dash to get to the other side and get up the escalators as the Cranks rush toward them from all angles. Thomas and the only other girl in the group start going up, but Cranks appear from the other side and block the rest of the group from getting up.

"What do we do?!"

Elle ignores the question and doesn't bother to answer when she sees another escalator that leads up and rushes toward it, just as Thomas begins telling everyone to go around.

"Follow her!" Minho tells the rest of the group and as if a switch has been flipped, they all start running, hurrying up the steps.

Elle doesn't slow down or check to see if anyone's following her as she runs away from the escalator as fast as she can. If she does, she's going to see the Cranks that are following as well and she can't let it get to her yet. Not until she's safe. Elle thinks she sees an opening a few hundred feet up ahead, but when she reaches the bottom of the incline, she feels her foot slide out from under her, and she hits the ground hard. She lets out an "Oof!" but doesn't have much time to process anything before a hand is in her face.

"C'mon, get up!" The accented voice says hurriedly. She looks up at the blonde boy offering his hand and takes it, letting him help her up. Neither of them say anything else, turning to run again when there's the sound of breaking glass and a Crank comes from behind a wall of windows, tackling the boy to the ground.

"Newt!" Thomas yells. He ran past right before the Crank appeared, but he turns back at the sound.

Elle sees Thomas coming back toward them, but she can't just stand there and do nothing. Taking the knife from her holster, she takes a step forward and takes the chance to slash at the Crank's arm. It has the intended effect and the Crank is distracted long enough for Thomas to show up and deliver a solid kick to the side of its body, pushing it off of Newt and sending it over the edge of the walkway they're on.

"Thanks, Tommy," Newt gasps out as they start running again. Elle is right behind them, catching Newt's glance when he turns back to make sure she's with them. They reach the others just as Minho begins directing them through the opening Elle saw before she fell, happy to see that it leads down a small hallway with doors all the way down it. Thomas pushes to the front and starts trying to open any door they come to, but none open.

Elle hears the hissing and screeching and turns around, her heart pounding against her chest when she sees Cranks start to come through the hole.

"Hurry up!" She screams turning back around. "They're coming!"

Thomas rushes to the end of the hallway, finally finding a door that starts to give. Everyone gathers in the small space as he keeps pushing against it, the door giving some, but not enough.

"I'll hold them back!" A brown-skinned boy next to Elle tells everyone, taking a pistol from his pocket and taking aim, beginning to fire shots. Elle watches as he hits a few Cranks, but it doesn't do anything to stop them-it barely even slows them down.

"Get that door open!" He screams, continuing to shoot.

"Move!" Someone shouts and all Elle hears is the sound of the door finally being broken open.

"Go, go, go!" Thomas yells pushing people through the open door.

The boy next to her stops shooting and grabs Elle's arm, pushing her forward and through the door first. She reaches back to help him, but just as he grabs her hand, he gets pulled to the ground, Cranks grabbing at his legs.

"No!" Elle screams, trying to pull him toward her. This boy just made sure she got out before he did even when he didn't know her. She can't let him die. "Help!" The others quickly gather around and some of them grab a hold of him while the rest of them try and push the Cranks back with the door.

It feels like forever and the boy screams as the Cranks sink their fingers into his abdomen, clawing at whatever part of him they can reach. Elle grits her teeth and extends a leg out, kicking at the Cranks nearest to her in hopes of them letting go and thankfully it works. As the Cranks let go of the boy, they pull him away from the door. The boy she recognizes as Aris and a tall black boy quickly grab for the injured boy, hoisting him up.

Elle stands and with one look around her she begins running straight ahead, hearing people follow her. She tries to keep the panic down as she searches for somewhere to hide as she runs. She can panic once she's safe and that's what she keeps telling herself.

When she sees a ledge with what looks like fallen, broken stone, she knows it's their only hope and heads that way, quickly making her way down. She almost misses it when she passes it, but when she turns around to see if people are following her, she spots a little alcove, completely guarded from the top. Climbing back up the rocks, Elle spots the girl coming down and points down.

"Under there! Now!" Elle instructs and without a word, the girl does as she says. Aris and the boy carrying the injured boy are the ones who come over the ledge next and she waves them down. "Hurry! Get under there!"

The three boys follow her instructions and Elle stays on top until she sees Newt coming down followed closely by Minho.

"C'mon!" Elle tells them. "Down there!"

Newt starts to pass her, heading to the area she's pointing at, but surprises Elle when he grabs her hand, tugging her with him. "Let's go!"

"But Thomas-!"

"He's coming!" Minho promises Elle as he scales down the rocks. "Go Elle!"

Newt continues to pull her along, but Elle doesn't turn around and follow until she sees Thomas come up to the ledge. When Newt realizes she's finally cooperating, he pushes her ahead of him, making her go first before he follows her.

She settles down next to Aris, Newt sitting next to her, just as Minho and Thomas join them, Thomas turning his flashlight off quickly.

The group is completely silent, their breathing the only sound coming from them as they wait and listen, hoping that the Cranks don't come anywhere near them. They can hear the screeching, but it doesn't get any closer. Elle feels more fearful now, waiting to see if the Cranks leave them alone or find them, then she has since they started getting chased by the Cranks.

"I think they're gone," Thomas finally whispers about fifteen minutes later, once the screeching has long since past.

"We need to stay here," Elle says before anyone else can say anything. Everyone turns to her, some of them giving her incredulous looks, but she swallows the lump in her throat and continues. "It's dark and Cranks are all over the place right now. Our best bet is to stay here until morning."

"Who are you and why should we listen to you?" Aris asks, his tone wary. Elle understands; she'd be the same in his shoes.

"I'm Elle," she tells him. "And I've been out here for a few months so I have some experience with Cranks."

"We ran into her when we were searching," Thomas tells everyone when no one says a word. "And I think we need to trust her."

"Why?" the girl cuts in. "She could be working with WICKED, Thomas!"

"I don't think she's with WICKED," Thomas disagrees, glancing at Elle. He studies her for a moment, but Elle doesn't think anything of it. "She would have hurt us or done something when we found her if that's the case."

"I'm not," Elle confirms. "I'm trying to get away from them."

"We are too," Minho admits, Newt turning to look at him with a surprised face. Minho glances at him before sighing. "I trust her. If she says we need to stay here, we need to stay."

It's quiet for a few seconds and Elle wonders if the others are going to say anything before Newt finally nods. "Then that's good enough for me. If Thomas and Minho trust her, I trust her," Newt says before turning to Elle to formally introduce himself. "I'm Newt."

"I'm Aris," Aris supplies, pushing forward a little.

"Frypan," the dark skinned boy says with a small, kind grin before pointing toward the injured boy. "This is Winston."

"And I'm Teresa," the girl states from next to Thomas. Her tone shows that she's a little more guarded than the others, but it doesn't bother Elle. She gets it.

"What do we do now?" Aris finally asks.

"Try and get some sleep," Thomas states. "We'll make a plan tomorrow morning."

Everyone murmurs in agreement, Frypan turning to Winston and beginning to take care of him. Elle can see the wounds on Winston's stomach are bleeding and she searches in her backpack. She knows she has a few things in there for emergency situations and feels triumphant when she finds some bandage wraps at the bottom and hands them to Frypan.

"It should help for now," she says when he looks at her.

"Thanks, Elle," Frypan says gratefully before turning to Winston and beginning to patch him up as best as he can.

Elle stays silent for a moment before deciding that Thomas is right and she pulls her backpack off, placing it on the ground. Next to her, Newt's doing the same. He turns toward her and watches as she settles down, but turns his head when she looks at him. Elle knows he was looking at her, but lets it go and closes her eyes as she curls into a ball and tries to get some sleep.

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 **Hello everyone! I'm Morgan and this is my first MR fic. I've decided to mostly go off the movie-verse with this instead of the books, but I will be bringing in a bunch of book elements too. I have awesome plans for this and I hope you'll stick around. It's gonna be a wild ride!**


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